Shallow-Fried Small Fish with Ginger Sauce

Name: Shallow-Fried Small Fish with Ginger Sauce
Yield: makes 4 servings
Ingredients: Peanut or vegetable oil for frying; One 2- to 3-pound or two 1- to 1 1/2-pound black sea bass or other fish (see headnote), gilled, gutted, scaled and thoroughly dried, heads may be on or off; Cornstarch or flour for dredging; 1 tablespoon peeled and minced fresh ginger; 1 teaspoon minced garlic; 2 tablespoons soy sauce; Chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish

December 14, 2011

Not far from the cooking traditions of American freshwater fishermen, this is simple panfried fish with a separately made sauce. If you’re shopping, look for small specimens of black sea bass or red snapper; if you’re fishing, large mouth bass, croaker, spot, and porgies are all good. In any case, you need the fish to fit in your pan. In fact, two small fish are better than one large one in this instance. Use the best soy sauce you can find for this dish. There’s not much sauce here, so unless you’re from a rice-eating culture, you might find rice a bit dry. Cold Noodles with Sesame Sauce (page 532) would make a great starter, or you could serve this with Egg Noodles with Spring Onions (page 536). For vegetables, try Quick-Braised Root Vegetables with Hoisin (page 499) or Snow Peas with Ginger (page 470).

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